When a message is well thought out and presented in words, what is it
about us that stops it from really being absorbed? Is it skepticism? Ignorance?
Too much noise in the personal filters of our life? So often, we hear someone trying to give us a
message and all we hear is a bunch of words.
It can make all the sense in the world.
We listen and look at the messenger and say, “Yes, I get it…thanks.” And we walk away. The message is often not even committed to
your deep memory, no matter what its value.
Like a computer, it sits there in instant memory and is never written to
your hard drive memory. When you go to
sleep at night, you reboot and that instant memory is wiped for the next
day. The message is lost.
Words have always had the ability to seriously change a
life. But the fact remains that we human
beings don’t really listen well to them.
In the past twenty five years, as the information age has evolved, this
devaluing of words has become even more prevalent. There is so much noise coming at us day to
day. Television with 900 channels, the
internet, radio, billboards…it is non-stop.
How does a valuable message even bubble to the surface of such an ocean of
noise? More and more, a good or great
message has to be accompanied by an act.
Someone has to take action based on the message. Words have power. They contain the basis for the belief. All the reasoning, all the information you
need to know is in the words. But to
truly motivate human beings, that must be accompanied by a demonstration of
commitment.
For almost all of us, the action actually says more than the
words. For a great many, they simply
follow and pay attention to the action without EVER listening to the
message. The action is what we latch
onto. The message could actually be
muddled and a bit troubling…but we will pay attention to the act and the
half-baked message. This, also, is
something magnified in the information age.
Those who present the messages to you, those who make money from the
amount of attention you pay to a particular message, then wrap the information
they give you with the most salacious and attention grabbing actions. You don’t believe me? Go to a website for news or grab your
newspaper. Read the headlines and the
top articles. Are the most valuable messages
at the top? Is Kim Kardashian’s divorce
really more important than people dying in Darfur?
I often wonder, “If Jesus died on a cross in 2012, what
would happen?” It's troubling to think
that he would be a headline today, a follow-up story tomorrow, and then be
replaced by the winner of the Masters Golf Tournament on Sunday.
Maybe we just simply don’t have the time to sort through the
messages of value. Maybe we have simply
stopped developing the thinking skills required to carefully slice and dice up
a message and really understand it’s value.
Maybe though, just maybe, it goes deeper than that.
Anybody can say words.
It takes a really strong person of drive and character to commit to
something. Commitment requires
action. Action gets the attention. Action is what turns your message into a
headline. It’s one thing to “talk the
talk.” But when you “walk the talk,” you
open eyes. Some of the greatest
messages, and some of the most atrocious ones, were accompanied by acts that
got people’s attention. Think about
that for a moment.
In 2012, action needs to have one more thing going for
it. It needs to be consistently done,
over and over. It can’t be just a sound bite
today because it will be nothing two weeks from now. It
has to be a suit you put on and wear every day.
So whatever it is about the human experience, we need to see
someone commit to a belief before we notice.
Sometimes, and we can think about this at Easter, we need to see someone
willing to die on a cross before we truly listen. As Jesus died, so the scripture reads, a man
was heard to say, “Truly, this man was the son of God.” Now, whether you have a Christian belief
system or not, you have to react to that and say, “You didn’t notice the words,
the preaching, the carrying of the cross over dirt in scorching heat, all done
while wearing a crown of thorns…but when he died for his message, the light
went on?” It's a lot to demand before we begin to truly listen.
What does it truly take for us to begin hearing messages and
really seeing their value without being assisted by extreme acts? Good question.
Until something changes, we all are faced with this human behavioral fact. If you have something to say, you better be willing to put action to it.
Now, before I write the next paragraph and upset people about the analogy I am about to make, please understand that it is not a comparison nor is it something meant to be even close to Jesus. It is a small, very small, depiction of my point. It is a statement about the human life we all experience and what it takes for ANY message to be heard. If Jesus had such a hard time making his point, what chance do the rest of us mere mortals have?
I know one thing about all the words I have spoken about how
to be more healthy, lose weight and get fit. The words are read more when they are wrapped by pictures of
me depicting real results. It’s not
enough for me to tell people how they can do it. They have to see me do it.
And so it goes. You
have to commit to action if your message, any message you have to impart, is going to be heard. We cannot change human nature so we must
demonstrate our belief every day and show everyone that it can be done.
And so, on Easter, you can ask yourself these questions.
“Will I begin to listen for
myself to messages given to me, and truly think about their value and meaning?”
“Is the message that I want to pass on so valuable and
important to others that I am willing to commit to it fully?”
While you ponder those things, don’t eat too much
chocolate. It’s bad for you. But you won’t listen to the message, so know
that I won’t be eating any. I hope you are smiling at that.
Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate it, and Commit.
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